Life explodes in a burst of beauty
M icroscopic galaxy of
starlike Asterionella
diatoms (left) spangles
pond waters. These one
celled plants, linked in a
radialpattern, lie dormant
in winter and burgeon in
the spring, sometimes
turningponds yellow.
With them in the watery
firmament float a rectan
gular stack of Fragilaria
diatoms and a rotifer egg.
With its trunklike
extension, the waterflea
Bosmina (above), a
crustacean about a fiftieth
of an inch long, resembles
the head of an elephant.
A female copepod
(right) carries on the
sides of her abdomen
packets of eggs that may
yield some 40 young.
200 TIMES LIFE-SIZE
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